Squid on Wheels: The Great Allegheny Passage ... Day 4

Belle Vernon, PA to Mckeesport, PA

To answer Ina's question, yes, three of us did the ride on Bike Friday folding bikes. The bikes are made for touring and did a great job of it. Little Squid rode a Specialized Dolce road bike simply because he is still a bit too small for a Friday. If we do this again before he is big enough, we will try to get him a bike with fatter tires. He did fine on the skinny ones but they made for a slightly more nerve racking ride on the rough surfaces.

(Bottles of Nuun fizzing away in West Newton)

After a lovely night in the Belle Vernon Comfort Inn and a nice breakfast, we loaded our gear up and took off towards Mckeesport and the end of the trip.

Knowing that there were only about 27 miles ahead of us we figured that we would be back in Pittsburgh by noon or so.

(Hamming it up in West Newton -- the BEST bathrooms on the trail!)

(Ice cream and frozen yougart at the Yough Twister)

What we did not bargain on was encountering another family riding Bike Friday's! Just outside of Boston, after a rather uneventful ride (albeit one that finally featured ice cream) Mike spied two Bike Friday's in a back yard and pulled over to chat. Turns out that the family was in the last stages of a cross country trip. Gulp! They'd already done 2600 miles from Spokane, WA and were headed for Ocean City, MD. They had had 10 flat tires the day before and wound up camping in a kind strangers back yard for the night. Check out their blog, it is really good reading.
We chatted with them for a half hour or more and gave them some inner tubes for their Friday's and a spare folding tire. Hopefully that gave them an "umbrella" against future flats.

(Final bathroom break in Mckeesport)

The rest of the trip continued to be uneventful, even the road riding as we got into Mckeesport. We (thankfully) found the car right where we left it, just as we left it. I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't a little bit worried about leaving it in a strange town for four days.

Once the car was packed up we called my brother and arranged to pick him up so that we could gain access to his home. Warm showers and cold drinks were followed by two lovely days with my brother and sister-in-law touring Pittsburgh and eating fantastic food. The tale of the days in Pittsburgh, however, will have to wait.

Total biking mileage: 137 miles over four days. Also, about 3 miles of hiking in Ohiopyle, a town I highly recommend for a weekend get away if your idea of a good time is hiking, biking, and rafting.

Over all, a highly successful trip, one that may spur other long distance biking trips though perhaps not as long distance as our Friday friends.

Squid on Wheels: The Great Allegheny Passage ... Day 3

Ohiopyle, PA to Smithon (Belle Vernon), PA

After a comfortable evening in Ohiopyle, we set out once again, this time back the way we had come. Our goal was the Fairway Inn in Smithton, roughly 40 miles away.

Shortly after we started, Squidette mentioned that she was not feeling 100%. With that in mind, we took it slow though still at a quicker pace then the day before, simply because the route was mostly down hill. We stopped periodically to rest and to make sure that we were all drinking enough and rolled into Connellsville about 10:00.

In Connellsville, we found a supermarket and bought muffins for a mid-morning snack and sandwich fixings for lunch.

After another break and the consumption of the muffins, Squidette started feeling better and was able to eat her lunch when we stopped at the Roundbottom Campground.

We had a nice lunch and chatted with some day-trekkers. While dining, a 20-something, riding the entire trail with his friend, came over to us to ask how far they were from Connellsville. After providing the information, we gave him and his friend our leftover sandwich meat and bread.

Moving on down the trail (mostly slightly down hill) we traveled for a few miles before Little Squid started complaining that he wasn't feeling 100%. See a pattern here? (It actually started with Mike the night before.) We persevered to the Smithton trailhead and gave him a while to rest. We were way ahead of schedule so time was not a big factor and we knew we still had two miles or so to go.

Since we were running so early, Mike and I wanted to continue to the Ceder Creek trailhead, an alternate exit for our night's lodging, and did what we could to encourage Little Squid to continue a few more miles north.

(Old Overhold Distilary Swining Bridge remnants)

Finally, we resorted to bribing him with a geocache that was 4/10th of a mile from our location on the way to Ceder Creek. It worked and after quickly retrieving the cache, we continued on to Ceder Creek Park. There, Mike called the Inn for directions and was told that the route from Ceder Creek was much easier than from Smithton. So we started climing out of the park. And climbing. And climbing. Squidette and I had to resort to walking our bikes up part of the hill while Little Squid (he of the stomach ache) plowed his way up the entire hill with Mike. Mike later admitted that he had his rear kicked by that hill and barely made it up himself. Just goes to prove how much the gear was weighing us down.

We found our way to Highway 51 and worked our way to the Inn, passing several other motels along the way.

When we finally got there we discovered that it was a tiny, 10 room establishment attached to a bar. And that the proprieter had not started the grill for the day and was therefore not serving any food. This was rather annoying since one of the reasons we reserved rooms there was because the proprieter had clearly stated over the phone that there was food available at the inn.

Figuring that we would have to walk to the gas station for sandwiches, we went to our rooms to stow our gear. And immediately walked out. Both rooms stank. One of cigarette smoke and the other of ... I really don't know but it was gross and disturbing.

What I did know was that there was no way we were staying there and that I was willing to eat the cost of the rooms.

We turned around and carefully pedaled back along the highway to the Comfort Inn where they happily provided us with two clean, odor-free rooms. And then, immediately and pleasently refunded one room when we realized that just one of the two was more than big enough for all four of us. It was HUGE! Plently of room for the bikes, two queen beds and a small table to boot. And ... they had agreements with nearby establishments to deliver food to the hotel!

So, after a dip in the pool (!) we showered and ordered a huge dinner from a local pizza place. Breakfast was included in the room rate so we were totally set for the night.

The next day we headed back to the other inn to drop the keys in the drop box and realized that had we climbed up from the river at Smithton, we would have had an easier climb and we would not have seen the other inns. In this regard, that rear-kicking climb was a true blessing

Squid on Wheels: The Great Allegheny Passage ... Day 2

Connellsville, PA to Ohiopyle, PA
The day started out overcast and dreary. Since we only had about 20 miles to go for the day, we hung back at the hotel for a little bit and played a couple of hands of Uno. Once we saw that things were neither getting better nor worse, we set out.
The first 3 miles were just spent getting from the hotel to the start of the trail where Squidette had a spectacular slide-out. She hit a groove in the trail badly and her bike slid out from under her. She managed to stay upright and literally ran off of her bike as it fell. Riding behind her, I witnessed the entire thing while attempting to not run into her. Truly an amazing save.

That kind of set the stage for a rockier ride than the first day though the trail was still fairly decent.

The day was damp and periodically the clouds would drip on us. First lightly, then a bit more heavily, then lighter again. We donned and undonned our ponchos a couple of times before just giving up. With the "adults" in black and Little Squid in yellow, we looked like three grim reapers and a duck! I do so wish we could have gotten a picture of that.

By the time we'd ridden about 10 miles the sky had stopped dripping and our only complaint was our increasing need of bathroom facilities. Ultimately, the men did as only men can do and Squidette and I decided we could hold out for a bit longer. Finally, with about 6 miles to go, we came upon a raft take-out area with a porta-pottie. Never has one of those smelly closests looked so good to me!

After a few more miles we started seeing people on the trail, day trekkers and folks with young kids out for a stroll or bike ride. And then ... Ohiopyle!

Ohiopyle is a town that really seems to exist for the sole purpose of providing rafting trips on the Youghiogheny River. On one side of the Ohiopyle Falls there are class III and IV rapids and on the other there are class I and II rapids.

Our hotel was all of two "blocks" from the trail. I put the word in quotes because the whole town is only about 3 NYC blocks long and maybe 2 blocks wide. O.k., there are some homes a bit further out from the river, but not many.

Small as it is, Ohiopyle is a cool place. The people were uniformly friendly and the atmosphere calm and quiet. Our hotel--the Yough Plaza Lodge--was clean with large rooms that opened out onto a covered porch. We were able to park our bikes in the wooden rack right in front of our rooms using the "piddly" locks (NOT NYC quality locks!).

After a nice lunch at the Firefly Cafe, we changed our bike shoes for tevas and divested ourselves of anything that couldn't take a swim. Little Squid even changed into a bathing suit. The rest of us figured that our bike clothes would dry quickly enough if we decided to get wet. Setting out on a hike, we noted that it took us far longer to cross the bridges into town on foot than by bike.

We walked through the woods and after some interesting detours found the Natural Water Slides. Only Little Squid was brave enough to try them--and only after I first watched another family do them. We took our cues from the adult male in the group. He would go down a length of river in the slides and then give a thumbs up or down to the kids and female in his group. The mom would then watch as her boys went, one by one, down the slide. Once they had navigated each length of rock, I told Little Squid to go on and I followed on foot. Finally, the gentleman we were watching spun around a few times on one stretch and gave a thumbs down. The mom and I worked together to get the four boys from one side of the river to the other and the adventure ended.

Finishing our hike, we cleaned up and headed out to dinner and then an evening of game playing on the porch and a chat with our neighbors.
Another excellent day on the trail. 20 miles--mostly up hill but at a slow grade.

Squid on Wheels: The Great Allegheny Passage ... Day 1

Several days ago we set out on a little adventure. Our goal was to ride a portion of the Great Allegheny Passage. The Passage is a rail-trail that connects Cumberland, MD with Pittsburgh, PA. The passage is incomplete at the Pittsburgh end so you can only get as close as Boston, PA without riding on any roads.

Driving first to Pittsburgh, we spent the night with my brother and his lovely wife (and cat and dog) before setting out.

Starting in Mckeesport, PA, about 10 miles north of Boston, we immediately discovered the first challenge as we unloaded and set up the bikes--two flat tires.

The tubes in Little Squid's rear wheel and in Mike's front wheel were quickly swapped out and we took to the road to meet our second challenge:
a tree across the trail. We found a way around it and continued on down the trail until it ran out and continued down a road for a bit until the trail began again. The trail from this point until Boston is not very pleasant. It alternates between asphalt and rough gravel over and over again--with some asphalt areas spanning only a quarter mile or less. It really did not make sense! We were begining to think that maybe this was not such a good idea when, after a few miles, the trail turned to a consistently packed limestone and stayed that way.


We were traveling relatively lightly compared to a family that we met a few days later. They are doing a cross country trek and are fully loaded with both kids pulling their fair share. We had with us 5 paniers and a handle-bar bag. Each adult carried 2 paniers and Squidette carried the 5th. Little Squid was in charge of the snacks in the handle-bar bag.
For the first couple of days we were really conscious of how much we were drinking and being really careful to stay properly fueled and hydrated. We've adopted a new sports drink--Nuun-- and it seems to do the job just fine without giving Little Squid a stomach-ache (an unfortunate side effect of our old sports drink, Accelerade), it also has minimal calories so Mike and I were comfortable guzzling it, something I am not good about with plain water.

See our water source? Just a suggestion, if you ride this trail, make sure to fill up your bottles in the towns and avoid the pumps if you can. The water from the pumps is sulfury and not pleasant to drink straight. The Nuun helped but I still had to force it the liquid down.
The pump above is the one at the Dravo Cemetery and Campground. Nope. Not kidding. The boy scouts built and maintain a primitive biker-hiker campground here. Nice place, actually, and there is a toilet of sorts. (One step above a porta-potty but without the flush of a "real" toilet.) Not bad when given the options.
We passed several creeks and waterfalls. This one looked like it was frozen. I'm thinking that it is due to calcite or limestone in the water. Very neat looking.
Then there is this one, the famous Red Waterfall. The red is due to the iron oxide seeping out of the old coal mines. Basically, pollution. Neat but sad. So much damage was done to the area during the coal and iron mining days. There are piles of mine tailings all over the region just waiting to be cleaned up.
Despite the environmental damage, the trail is lovely. It is mostly surrounded by trees and runs alongside the river for most of it's length. We passed bridge after bridge after bridge. Some, the remnants of the old railroads, others, still in service as automobile or pedestrian bridges over the Youghiogheny River.

After riding for more than two hours, we finally stopped at West Newton which has the distinction of having the best bathrooms on the trail. Or so we were told. Not having tried all of them, we can't really say. But ... they were really good bathrooms! Clean, automatic and ... air conditioned!

Right across the road / trail from these wonders of modern plumbing was the Trailside Cafe where we had a very nice, filling lunch before moving on. And on. And on.

At the end of the day, about 4:15, we rolled into Connellsville, PA and, after asking directions, pedaled about a mile, up hill, to the Melody Motor Inn.

It was clean, reasonably sized and the proprietress was very nice. It was also a distance from any food. The diner behind it closed at 3 and we started to worry that we would have to resort to sandwiches from the Walmart across the highway (or really busy street, one of the two). The motel owner did tell us where there was an ice cream and beer distributership a little bit up the road (on the same side as the motel) and that they served sandwiches. We decided to give that a try before resorting to Walmart. Good thinking! They had hoagies on the menu and, I've got to say, those were the best hoagies I've ever had. Homemade roast beef, real turkey, right off the bird and honest to goodness ham. Yum! And we washed them down with milk shakes. Hey, we'd just ridden 45 miles!

Back to the motel for a round of Quiddler, and one of Uno then some reading and off to bed.

***

Tune tomorrow in for day 2

I'm Bikin' in the Rain ... Just Ridin' in the Rain ...

... what a not-so-glorious feeling, I'm soaking again ...

I've been working this week -- working, as in going in to school, versus the work that I've been doing at home for much of the month. With the work comes the desire to ride to work instead of confining myself in a car or subway in the July heat. Or the July rain. Which ever.

So, my utter commitment to riding to work, and then to pick up Little Squid from camp, has led to some soggy rides this week.

On Muesday the weather report was a little iffy but it was dry when I set out for work. By the time I left school for camp the sky was looking a little yellow and, after riding half a block, I turned around, brought my bike back into school, and ran up the stairs to my boss's office (from whence I am working this week so she can get some time off) to close the windows.

Good move.

I then pedaled sedately to camp and, arriving a few minutes early, sat in a nearby park with my knitting until pick up time. Just as I was walking the bike to the camp building I felt the first drops. Hmm, I thought. Maybe just air conditioner shpitz? (We get a lot of that from window units and I was in denial.) I continued on and, leaving my bike half under the overhang, unlocked Little Squid's bike, reattached his wheel, and did my usual parking of it on the side of the building. Not under the overhang. I then took out my knitting and proceeded to wait. (His group always gets out late and I always get there early.)

Then it started to rain. A light, but steady and undeniable, rain.

I moved both of our bikes under the overhang and put away, in my waterproof panier, my knitting. And then my cell phone (it travels in my jersey pocket). And my watch. (I was wearing my good "work" watch versus my summer "can take a beating and some rain" watch.) The other mothers and I sheltered as the rain came down in fairly heavy drops for several minutes.

By the time Little Squid came out, the rain had mostly abated and we decided to pedal home.

It continued raining lightly for the first couple of miles (the ride is just under 6 miles) and then ... with an ominous roll of distant thunder ... the skies opened up. We pedaled pell mell for the nearest shelter, about a quarter mile ahead. The rain was sheeting sideways, right at us and was so fast, hard and heavy that I could not easily catch my breath, I just kept sucking in water instead of air!

Achieving the cover of the West Side Highway (also called the Joe DiMaggio Highway) which runs above a section of the greenway for about 1.5 miles, we rode to the last sheltered pull off before the "point of no return," the end of the highway which spelled the end of any shelter other than the rare awning, until home. Sharing the sheltered space with another parent-kid combo, we waited out the worst of the rain until clearing skies and lighter drops seemed to indicate that the storm was moving toward New Jersey.

We made our way home, arriving with the very last of the rain drops.

When we got home we were somewhat squishy but not "wring out your socks" soaked. Not too bad and nothing to really regret tho I promised to steer clear of the greenway in the future if electrical storms were predicted.

One would think that this was a lesson learned.

Right?

Obviously you do not know me that well.

Yesterday was lovely. Hot, but lovely. And totally uneventful. The only moisture on my clothing was caused but my bodies natural reaction to the day's heat.

Today? The signs were all there. The totally grey skies. The ominous weather report. The fact that Squidette was not riding again this week by choice ... I, however, listened to the voice that said "Squidette is performing in Morningside Heights and you work in East Harlem. The easist way to get from one to the other is by bike."

And so I rode. The ride to work was fairly uneventful except for the usual idiots. Work was not uneventful but I dealt as I must and, leaving promptly, half an hour later than I was supposed to, I rode off to Squidette's camp.

The sky was grey-green but the fates were with me. I arrived just in time for Squidette's performance and was only a little damp due to the exertion and heat. Mostly the heat. I just don't push myself that hard when riding alone.

Squidette performed with the String Ensemble (with bassoon) and then again, solo. I kvelled. And then I left, leaving Mike in the audience, with the thought that I should get moving to "beat the rain."

It was already raining when I got outside. By the time I'd unlocked my bike I was pretty wet and thinking that the subway might be a good idea. But I had no metrocard. But I did have a credit card which is almost as good.

By the time I'd pedaled to the nearest subway station I was already soaked and figured that I could not really get anymore wet. The rain was warm and the thought of schleping my bike underground to the overheated subway platform and then on to the overchilled subway was not a pleasent one. So I rode on. All the way home.

The rain was fairly heavy but was not as driving as Monday's storm. Occassionally I'd see a dim flash of lightening and hear a low rumbling of thunder but on I cycled, counting off the blocks by 10's. The ride was 100 blocks, a little over five miles with the extra east-west blocks.

I stayed on the streets, sticking to a lightly trafficked avenue and rode fairly steadily until 64th street, when, due to a need to breath some air with my water, I took cover in a bus shelter for a few minutes. The rain was still not as bad as that brief episode on Monday but I needed a short breather.

The next part of the ride continued as the first, with water pouring into my bike shoes. I think my brakes were sending the spray directly down the inside of my ankles.

Then the bike started to wobble a bit. I pulled out of the street and looked down and discovered ... a flat tire. Then I looked up and realized that I had only 5 blocks to go. And, it had, mostly, stopped raining.

My clothes were dripping wet when I got home. My socks will take days to dry. I need to replace my inner tube.

And I'd probably do it again. But not tomorrow.

Knitting?

Yes, there has been knitting and spinning going on around here.

Lots of tiny socks for geocaching swag.

A "don't have to look" sock for Mike. This is where it was in late June after seeing the new Star Trek movie and at the start of Squidette's graduation. It has since seen Harry Potter, a two hour performance at Squidette's camp and been to the ophthalmologist. (Two by two ribbing can be done with my eyes closed. Or dilated.) It now has a heel and about 4 inches of cuff.

There is also a sock-in-progress for Squidette. It gets worked on while I'm waiting to pick the kids up from camp.

Tomorrow we are going to my sister-in-laws' for the day so I have 3 hours of car time and lots of visiting time. My prediction is that I will finish the first of Squidette's socks (it is almost to the toe) and maybe the first of Mike's pair.

And then there is Swallowtail ...

Knit in laceweight, homespun, two-ply, bamboo-silk (I'm not sure if it is a bamboo silk mix or if it is bamboo "silk." The roving (top really) was a gift and the giver was not, at the time, a spinner and didn't know anything other than what was written on the label.) Since it was evenly dyed, I suspect it it all bamboo. It was certainly easier to spin than silk.

I finished the spinning last summer and the yarn aged for 6 months or so before I finally realized that it needed to be Swallowtail, a pattern that has aged on my shelf for a few years.

I do not think I will make another Swallowtail. It is lovely and I am quite happy with it but the nupps seriously annoyed me. That said, I was using my blunt tipped addi turbos and not the newer addi lace needles. The next time I knit a pattern with nupps in it I will make sure to use pointy needles. I also suffered from some brain melting during the final chart and had to rip out half a dozen rows.

More to come as we start our summer travels. Pittsburgh any one?

Squid on Wheels: Riding Around Manhattan

It has been two years since we last attempted to circumnavigate our home island and, in reality, on this trip, we actually circumcised the island ... we cut off the tip after encountering heavy tourist traffic at the southern end.

We started by meeting a friend and his dad and rode up to Fairway to buy the fixings for a picnic breakfast for later in the morning. We then made a brief stop at the base of the George Washington Bridge. I am always amazed at the size difference between the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge! After ascending the hill that starts at the light house, we rode a bit more before stopping to admire the view from Inspiration Point.
At Inwood Park, while the adults schmoozed, the kids ran out and grabbed a geocache that we'd failed to find on a previous trip.

Little Squid discovered a quicker way back to the path.
Squidette got caught trying to sneak up on the adults.

The view from our breakfast spot.
Starting downtown, we paused to admire the only surviving farmhouse in Manhattan. Very strange to think about farms in Manhattan. Very strange!
As I chatted with our friends, we all commented on the fact that we cannot name a single neighborhood in Manhattan that is not gentrifying. Even those areas with a heavy load of low income housing projects are being inundated with upscale residences and the accompanying businesses. Swindlers Cove is an example of that change.Amazing change, isn't it.

We continued our journey but after Swindler's Cove I stopped taking pictures and we, for the most part, stopped playing tourist and just concentrated on riding. We worked our way down the east side of Manhattan, pausing to use the facilities at Carl Shurz park, and rode down and across the tip of the island. The last few miles were arduous, mainly because it was now mid-day and all of Manhattan seemed to be out and about on the waterfront. The crowds were such that we had to ride very carefully and spent the rest of the trip concentrating on not hitting runners, pedestrians, roller bladers and other cylists.

Total mileage: 34 miles bringing us up to 56 for the weekend.

Squid on Wheels: Roosevelt Island

We took off today with the intention for riding around 30 miles in about 4 hours. Our route was to be: Eighth Avenue to Central Park, Central Park Drive to 90th Street, 90th Street to Carl Shurz Park and the East River Promenade, East River Promenade to the bridge to Ward / Randall's Island, Triboro Bridge to Queens, various streets to the Roosevelt Island Bridge, RIB to Roosevelt Island, Circumnavigate Roosevelt Island, back over the bridge to Queens, various water frontish streets to the Kosiuzko Bridge to Brooklyn, various streets to the Fairway Market in Red Hook for lunch, and then the usual routes home.

This was the plan.

You know what they say about plans ...

Lighthouse on Roosevelt Island
Ruins on Roosevelt Island

We got as far as circumnavigating Roosevelt Island.

As we climbed up to the pedestrian part of the bridge to go back to Queens, Mike hit an expansion joint badly and his front wheel sank into the joint. He staggered and caught his balance (he was practically walking the bike at the time) and pulled his wheel out of the gap. In his almost-fall, his weight had caused the wheel to bend just enough to make it unrideable. After some discussion we decided that he would take the subway back into Manhattan and the kids and I would cut our ride short and ride back over the Queenboro Bridge.

Sculpture at the south end of Central ParkSite of Geocache

And so it went. We rode back ino our own boro, stopped briefly in Central Park to munch on some baked goods purchased on Roosevelt Island, grabbed a geocache on 57th Street and then pedaled down Broadway to where the path disappears in Times Square.

The path is lovely up until that point - there, it dumps one into either having to walk through the pedestrian plazas for a few blocks or, to to battle the traffic on 7th Avenue. Unfortunately, the path ends at a west-bound street, which forces the rider to either go out to 9th Avenue or, to walk or ride east the wrong way for half a block to get to 7th Avenue. Yo! City Planners! How about adding an east-bound path on that block to make things a bit safer for those of us who choose to not polute!

Total ride: 22 miles.

We are rather short of last years' total and will probably not come close. The kids have been opting to spend the weekends with their friends instead of riding with their parents. Had to happen sooner or later.

This evening I took Little Squid and three of his friends to see the new Harry Potter movie and then out for pizza. Squidette oined me and we sat a few rows back from the boys so they could see it without "adult supervision." Squidette then abandoned me and went home for leftover pizza instead of getting the good, fresh stuff with the boys. *grin*

Tomorrow we have more big riding plans ... lets see what the fates have in store for us. (Mike will be riding his "road" bike which usually functions as our stationary trainer.)

Teens!

They make you laugh, they make you cry, they make you crazy!

At 8:20, after dropping off Little Squid, I said good-bye to Squidette as she pedaled off to camp, 10 blocks further north, and I pedaled home in order to change and make a 9:30 meeting. She promised to call once she had locked up her bike.

I head home, coasting down Riverside Drive, grinding out the miles along the Hudson River and, finally, as I neared the Intrepid, started to worry. It had been too long. Had I missed the call? Pulled over, checked my cell phone. Nope, no missed call. Try Squidette's phone ... right to voice mail.

Pedaling on, I get to my exit, go through the cell phone ritual again and start to really worry. Was she hit by a truck? (Very few trucks on our route.) Did she wipe out on the steep descent to camp? And what about the violin on her back ...

Arriving in the apartment, I decide that calling camp is way more important than arriving at my meeting on time and, as I navigate the various options on the camp phone system ... my phone rings.

She forgot.

Oops.

I've forgiven her ... it is only the second time in over a year that she's forgotten to call. But it is amazing just how panicky I got for those few minutes.

Random Musings

It's amazing how dry my skin gets given that it spends hours and hours each day slathered in greasy sunscreen.

Squidette like humming Schubert's 8th Unfinished Symphony. She says the tune is "fun." How many teens can say that!

I can now say that I have changed the pedals on a bicycle. And the seat (though I'd done that before). And, I have a boo boo on my chest from changing said pedals. Don't ask.

I have survived 3 dinners without Mike and not had to resort to ordering in.

That said, we ate leftovers for two of the nights and I made macaroni and tuna for the third. Tomorrow is a bread, cheese and sausage picnic, weather cooperating. See, I CAN feed my children. Just not well.

It's sugar snap pea season and I'm in heaven! I eat them like candy.

The first skeins of Mike's new sweater are in their final soak in the sink and the next ones are mid-ply on my Journey Wheel. I had to stop to change the water for the skeins in the sink and decided to blog instead of going back to plying.

Squidette now has contact lenses.

The price variation for her lenses (on-line) was huge! There was almost a $200 difference between the highest and lowest priced suppliers for a 6 month supply. Phew!

Little Squid is playing John Adams in the camp musical.

Random enough for you?

A Squidly July 4th

For this year's 4th we put our own spin on patriotism. We rode our bikes and had a picnic breakfast at the Harlem Fairway ...
Mike and Little Squid continued learning how to play a symbol of American folk music ...

We all got excited at the prospect of a fire works barge visible from our apartment ...
Mama played her Little Sis in Wii tennis ... (finally, someone I can beat!)
We watched a lovely sunset as the barge floated in and out of view ...

And finally, we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks display on the Hudson River.

(There was also some shopping (Mama Squid, Little Sis, Squidette and Grandma Squid), some show-going (Grandpa Squid and Little Squid) and some computer repair (Papa Squid). All in all, a good day!

Start of Summer

For Mike and the kids, this weekend was the start of summer vacation. My summer officially starts on Wednesday, kind of, sort of.

To celebrate the start of vacation, I started the weekend by picking up my new BeBook from the FedEx drop off site.

(Shown with the road atlas for size.)

It came loaded with 150 classics and, after an hour or so of patient fiddling (during which came a point where I almost returned it), I figured out how to read library ebooks on it. That means that I can load trashy novels on it in addition to those mind expanding classics.

I also figured out how to format pattern PDFs and other pattern types so that I can load knitting patterns on it and be able to actually read them.

We did other things this weekend, besides play with my new toy. On saturday we found a geocache that had been eluding us (we have now found over 100 caches thanks to Little Squid and friend) and on Sunday we took an, unintentionally, long walk and then went kayaking in the Hudson River, right here in Manhattan.

No pictures of the kayaking because I did not bring my camera -- didn't want it to get wet.

The road atlas is out because we are trying to figure out our vacation route for this summer. With labor day being late, we get almost all of August for a change -- a full extra week! Possible destinations include: the ever popular Lancaster, PA, the newly popular but still unvisisted Pittsburgh, PA and possibly Toronto, Canada.

For now, however, it is time to put on some sunblock and pedal off to work. Mike will schlep the kids to camp later and we will all reconvene somewhere around dinner time.

Ahh summer!

Graduation Lessons

Everyone should learn a lesson at graduation. Since I sat through two* of them today, I have two lessons.

1. Backless shoes (heels) clang like a bell when worn while descending hollow metal stairs in a stairwell lined in metal. There is nothing one can do to quiet them short of taking them off. And given how grody our stairs are, this was not an option. Think ... thirteen stairs per flight, two flights per floor. My office is on the third floor, the auditorium is on the first floor. I had to make the trip at least 6 times not counting my initial ascent in bike shoes and my final descent in same. Needless to say, I had a headache well before the second graduation.

2. "Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best." This is the lesson shared by my Principal at both graduations. It is a good one, a motto I unconsciously live by, and one that I think I will be repeating for a long time to come.

*We graduated both our 8th graders and our high school seniors in back to back ceremonies today.